I created a new FRC Manual App for Android

AquaMorph · January 8, 2014, 1:40pm

I got frustrated at the glitchiness of the current FRC Manual app so I decided to create my own. Right now it only works when connected to the internet but I am working on adding an offline mode. I would love some feedback on what can be done to make the app better.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aquamorph.frcmanual

cjl2625 · January 8, 2014, 2:27pm

I tried it, works great so far

A search function would be cool

Conor_Ryan · January 8, 2014, 2:52pm

Let us add bookmarks, being able to establish quick references is why so many ref’s tab their manuals at competitions.

While on the subject of rules, don’t forget to abide by this blog post as a design constraint:
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/blog-3D-Printer-Update-Hosting-Content

AquaMorph · January 8, 2014, 3:10pm

The app pulls all it’s data from http://frc-manual.usfirst.org/ just like the other FRC Manual app.

notmattlythgoe · January 8, 2014, 3:41pm

I like it better than the official app. I hate having to open the rule numbers to see what they are.

Phalanx · January 9, 2014, 2:42pm

Nice app. It’s a little slow on my Bionic, but that could just be my phone.

Would it be possible to add a pinch-zoom feature for us “older” folks?

Nice work.

pyroslev · January 9, 2014, 3:54pm

Works on my first gen Commando.

If you can add offline mode that be splendid. That’s my only complaint, for lack of a better term.

rzoeller · January 9, 2014, 4:02pm

I would change your icon so that your app doesn’t get de-listed. You can’t use any FIRST logos directly.

makahn64 · January 10, 2014, 5:53pm

Hey Christian,

I did a new version of our old AppDelegates Manual App while you were working on yours. I just saw yours after I published the new one. I saw the complaints on the ETC one, and it was locking up my Samsung GS3, so I banged it out as a test of some new libraries we’re working on.

Anyway, yours looks pretty nice! If we (AppDelegates) can be of any help, let me know. Happy to share code with you on GitHub too. I’m pushing out a new build probably later today with search, then back to the day job (more apps ).

Mitch

makahn64 · January 10, 2014, 5:56pm

Forgot the link:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appdelegates.frcmanual2014

I am tempted to open source it, but it has a bunch of AppD proprietary stuff in it. Maybe if I can figure out a way to remove some of the stuff. It’d be fun to have a ton of folks working on a super-manual app.

AquaMorph · January 18, 2014, 12:31pm

I updated the app. It now works offline and I added an option to enable zooming. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aquamorph.frcmanual

Phalanx · January 19, 2014, 12:04pm

Thanks SO MUCH!!! for the Zoom. I think your app is the only one of the FRC manual apps that do that.

Really very nice work.

eli2410 · January 19, 2014, 1:08pm

FYI, the summary repeats itself and some of the graphics cannot be seen in their entirety. Other than that, looks great!

Rishabhgadi · January 19, 2014, 2:36pm

Thanks! Great idea by the way, I was getting bothered by it also!

Patrick_Flynn · January 19, 2014, 3:11pm

I’m not to sure how relevant this is here. But last year FIRST requested that no one re-host their content, see blog post here under “Hosting Documents or Files”

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/blog-one-day-to-go

Frank:

It’s very important that FIRST, and only FIRST, host FIRST content. That is to say, rather than taking the documents and files you can find through usfirst.org and hosting them on your own sites, we need teams to link to our information instead. There are two main reasons:

Version control. Our documents and files may change over time. If a 3rd party host links to the original content instead of the original content, any updates we make will carry through. If the content is hosted instead of linked, the content may become obsolete, but with no notification to the user.
Intellectual property. While we’re not particularly possessive of our content, we do have a responsibility to protect FIRST IP. it’s not all created by FIRST, but it’s created for FIRST. So, re-hosting content may or may not infringe on donation agreements, licensing agreements or other matters that may not be public knowledge.
All that being said, we thank you for understanding and respecting this request. If you have questions, please feel free to contact frcteams@usfirst.org or (800) 871-8326, ext. 0.

I would recommend you contact FIRST about this at the provided email and remove the app if they request.

AquaMorph · January 20, 2014, 10:46am

Thanks for your concerns but I was well aware of this when I built the app. I think it would clear somethings up if I went into a little detail about how this app works. The app is basically a specially designed web browser. It loads the game manual from the FRC site and then injects some JavaScript to format it better for mobile devices. That is all the app does.

Patrick_Flynn · January 20, 2014, 2:41pm

So like I assumed it would appear that you are rehosting their data not directing someone to the official FIRST posting. Something that they specifically ask that you do not do.

Have you contacted FIRST in regards to this app?

BigJ · January 20, 2014, 2:51pm

You can inject Javascript into any website you like using the web browser you’re using right now. It’s client-side. (Not on either side of the argument, just saying he’s not “rehosting”)

notmattlythgoe · January 20, 2014, 2:56pm

He’s not rehosting, he’s loading the content directly from their site and reformatting it. By rehosting they mean taking a version of it and loading it on your webpage. Then if they update their version yours doesn’t get updated. That’s not what is going in here.

AquaMorph · January 20, 2014, 4:49pm

Yeah injection means it adds additional code to the official website.